A popular Web site offering downloadable live music was shut down last week after an international piracy watchdog group questioned its legality, raising issues about the rapidly growing online live music trade.

The Web site easytree.org – also known as EZ Torrent – was shut down by its host on April 6 after the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry claimed it was offering copyrighted music illegally.

But the site – launched in 2002 by German information technology consultant Rolf Wagner – was actually a “tracker” that offered links to uncopyrighted live concerts taped by fans. No downloads were directly available at the site.

London-based IFPI did not respond to calls for comment. Wagner couldn’t comment on the closure because of the ongoing IFPI investigation, but maintained that his site never offered copyrighted material, and that the closure was the result of a misunderstanding.

Still, the closure – the first of any site offering uncopyrighted live music – has raised eyebrows in the growing online trading community, which is concerned that other sites similar to easytree.org could be targeted.